Wednesdays

My Wednesdays are insanely busy lately.

I get Craig and the girls out of the house by 6:15 and then take McKay to school at 7:00.  And then I hurry back home to throw on a dress and jump back in the car to make the 45 minute drive to the temple for the 9:00 session.   

I'm usually home by 12:00 to have a quick lunch, unless I have errands to run and I forget to eat...that happens a lot lately, too.

Then at 2:30, I meet the missionaries at the church and we visit Miss Ida and Miss Rose.  Miss Rose is 84 and Miss Ida turned 91 last month.  I've been going with the missionaries on these visits for a little over a month, I think.  They are delightful, and even though I'm almost always super tired and draggy at that point in the day, something about visiting those two women breathes life into me and makes me totally forget that I have a million more things to do.  

This is Miss Ida...  

She was born in 1925.  And holy cow, is this woman a wealth of life experience!  The sisters always want to teach her about the gospel, but I always want to just ask her questions and hear about her life!  This week she told us about being a member of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham her whole life, and how she was supposed to be in that building when it was bombed in 1963.  She told us about having to sit in the back of the bus, if they were even allowed on the buses at all, and how they didn't get to do things like window shop or meet their friends for lunch.  They just worked.  Miss Ida didn't participate in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, but she had friends who did and she remembers vividly the effects to the march on the Birmingham community.  She has lived so much life and seen so much hardship and tragedy, but she only talks about how God has been instrumental in bringing her and her family through all of it, and the joy and peace that she finds in the Savior.  

We usually spend an hour with each of these wonderful women, but it's never enough time for me.  

Then I drop the sisters back off at the church and the reality of what's left to do creeps back in somewhere on that 20 minute drive back home.  

People are usually waiting for dinner at home, which we scarf down, and then we hurry to gather up scout things and YW stuff and jump back in the car at 6:00 for youth activities which start at 6:30, and Craig's meeting with the missionaries which starts at 7:00.  

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It's usually 8:30 by the time we leave the building and 9:00 before we're home and finished for the day, at least those of us who don't have homework.  And I'm almost always completely exhausted.  But there isn't one part of this day that I would eliminate.  

I love the quiet peace of the temple in the morning.  I love to connect with those sweet, wise, wonderful women in the afternoon.  And I love the bustle of activity at the church on Wednesday nights.  

Somehow, even though I run from start to finish every Wednesday, I manage to have what I need to get through the entire day...and to still be smiling when we leave the church.  How grateful I am for the strengthening, enabling power of the Atonement, for the opportunity to do things I never thought I could do, and for the blessing to have one entire day each week filled with service.